"Agents?" the guard from the front desk walked into the FAA conference room holding an 8½" x 11" manila envelope aloft in a gloved hand.
"Yes?" Agent Mitchell replied.
"A courier just delivered this to the front desk," the guard replied. "We ran it through the scanner and it appears to be clean."
"It is addressed to?" Rossi questioned.
"The Agent In Charge," the guard read the label on the front of the envelope.
"I'll take that," Agent Mitchell replied as he took out a pair of gloves and put them on before accepting the envelope.
"Let's take it into a small office before opening it," Rossi suggested. "It probably doesn't contain anything dangerous, but there is no sense in taking chances."
As the two agents were heading out of the conference room, the phone rang.
"Wait," Rossi counseled as the phone rang a second time. Finally, after the third ring, he nodded to Agent Mitchell to pick up the receiver.
"Agent Mitchell," the man answered the phone.
"I want to speak to Agent Rossi," a hollow sounding voice came through the line.
"One moment please." Agent Mitchell handed the receiver to Rossi who hesitated a moment before answering.
"This is Agent Rossi," he spoke into the receiver.
"Agent Rossi," the voice came over the line. "I know you just received an envelope via courier – Open it."
"That's not exactly protocol," Rossi was stalling for time.
"That doesn't matter," was the reply. "I can assure you that you and your people will not be hurt in any way by the contents of the envelope. I can also assure you that the contents are indeed genuine. Look them over and be ready to talk when I call back."
The line went dead.
Rossi glanced over at the technician handling the tracking and recording equipment. The woman shook her head. "They weren't on the line long enough," she sighed. "Although I did manage to narrow the area down to somewhere around here."
"Well, here goes," Rossi laid the envelope flat on the conference room table and deftly slit it open with his pocketknife. When he slid out the contents, the agents saw that there were five photographs lying on the table. All of them appeared to be recent pictures of Agents Hotchner, Jareau, Morgan, and Blake, inside what appeared to be a metal room.
One picture showed them sitting on what appeared to be army cots, eating. "Field rations," Cruz observed. "And, definitely not posed. JJ would never allow herself to be photographed with her mouth open like that."
Another picture showed them sitting on the cots reading, while a third photo showed them apparently playing a game on a piece of paper. The fourth picture showed them asleep on the cots, while the final picture showed them attempting to bowl using empty water bottles for pins.
Cruz looked at Rossi. "What do you think?"
"They appear to be genuine," Rossi replied slowly as he closely examined the pictures. "We will, of course, have to have them analyzed but I would assume these are being sent as proof that all four are alive and being well treated."
"Our next move?" Agent Grant questioned.
"We play back the call and analyze it, examine the pictures for clues, and wait for the next call," Rossi told him.
Rossi took out his cell phone and pushed a button. "I also need to get Reid back here," he said.
After several rings, his call went to voice mail.
"Reid, call me ASAP," Rossi spoke into the phone. "I need both you and Emma to come back here."